Category: music
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“I went down to the crossroads…”
Yesterday, I watched a great documentary about Robert Johnson and myth about selling his soul at the crossroads. It’s been well documented that Johnson’s music became the foundation for modern blues and rock and roll. That said, it’s incredible to actually trace the inspiration back to its source. I’d never…
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a kind of alchemy
About a year ago, Ben Gibbard became a massive presence in my life. I’ve always enjoyed Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service, but my interest could be described as casual at best. But in March of last year, as the world shut down, Gibbard’s music and creativity became…
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listening with intention
While siting through the piles of junk in my childhood bedroom, I found an old iPod classic, which by some miracle still works. I’ve had a blast the last week, bouncing through with this time capsule in my pocket. It’s also reshaped how I’ve listened to music recently. Instead of…
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setting a song free
Making mixtapes has been my thing since seeing High Fidelity in middle school. Actually, if you want to get technical, I was making mixes even before that, shuffling songs around in Napster and burning them to CDs to play on my boombox. But it was John Cusack’s ranting and raving…
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seven questions no one asked me
Once again taking a page from Austin Kleon’s book, I really enjoyed reading and responding to this New York Times article, in which 75 artists were asked about how they spent the last year. Here are my own responses (even though no one asked me): 1. What’s one thing you…
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commissioning a new notebook
I’ve carried a Moleskin notebook in my pocket with me everywhere I go for almost ten years now. It usually takes between six months and nine months to fill it with drawings, dialogue, bits of prose, and snippets of conversation. When it comes time to retire a notebook, I empty…
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late night seeing
I couldn’t sleep last night, so I poured a drink, put on a record, and opened my notebook. This happens every so often–I sit straight up in bed and feel compelled to make art. A few years back, I’d make collages or write poems. Stranded in the Midwest though, drawing…
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unplugged
Last fall, I watched the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, and immediately deleted all of my social media. What started as an emotional reaction to the implications of digitizing life quickly became a turning point. I deleted my Facebook and started calling my friends instead. I deleted my Instagram and…
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letting go
I’ve never been great at letting go of things. But I’ve come to realize letting go might be the single most important lesson to be learned. The one constant in life is that everything changes. If we aren’t able to adapt to that change–to let go of the way things…
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“make good choices”
Conflict is the engine of storytelling. Here’s the problem: I hate conflict. It takes a lot to make me angry and even more to make me yell. For years, I was a “people pleaser” who sought to make everyone happy, often as the cost of my own mental and emotional…
joshua chamberlain 